Off to the Philippines

 Ocean diving, Other, Reef diving  1 Response »
Dec 232013
 
Off to the Philippines

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and happy holidays to everyone! I’m excited to be heading off to the Philippines in two day’s time, diving at Atlantis Resort Dumaguete on a trip sponsored by Diversion Dive Travel. Dirk at Diversion has been extraordinarily helpful with all the details of the trip, especially when it turned out that a change in the Philippines Airlines sports baggage policy meant my rEvo wouldn’t be able to come. So I will be back on open circuit for a week of critter spotting. I spent last night in the garage putting together a singles reg for a yoke tank – I must be going the tropics. I’ve also discovered that there’s no in seat entertainment on [read more…]

Pot-bellied seahorse pair at Blairgowrie Marina

 Macro, Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Dec 162013
 
Pot-bellied seahorse pair at Blairgowrie Marina

About the site Blairgowrie Marina is known as a fantastic site for macro diving. Prior to buying my 100mm macro lens, I dived under piers only to testing new gear before heading to the caves. I generally chose Mornington for easy access from the car. Which means despite the great reputation, my very first dive at Blairgowrie was back in October. I made the most of the situation by leaving my strobe hotshoe only partially plugged in…doh. I have a bunch of “natural light” macro shots from that dive, and after checking out the critters and colours I was keen to return with strobes working. The piers around Melbourne have also been a great place to log some hours on [read more…]

rEvos on the J1 submarine

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  No Responses »
Dec 092013
 
rEvos on the J1 submarine

About the wreck The J1 sub is one of five J-class submarines outside the Heads, lying in about 32m of water. She’s starting to fall apart now, especially around the middle section where she’s broken in half. The conning tower is gone and the fish school between the struts of the hull. About the dive With the exception of a couple of weekends spent exploring in Elk River I’ve been trying to get out on my rEvo every weekend since getting back from training in Bali and caves in Indonesia. It’s been good to get into a rhythm with the unit. I now feel more confident that I’ve remembered most of the bits that I need and haven’t left the [read more…]